Applied evolutionary psychology in moral education: a quasi-experimental study exploring the longitudinal associations of compassion training with emotion regulation and prosocial ethical development

Introduction Moral education increasingly requires psychologically realistic approaches that explain how students transform moral knowledge into stable prosocial action. Drawing on applied evolutionary psychology, this longitudinal study examined whether compassion-training engagement in moral education was associated with students’ emotion regulation, moral identity integration, and prosocial ethical development across one academic semester. Methods A total of 458 undergraduates enrolled in moral education modules in Sino-foreign cooperative university contexts completed baseline, mid-semester, and endline assessments. The intervention comprised 8 weekly sessions facilitated by trained instructors, focusing primarily on suffering awareness and action planning. A parallel mediation model was used to test whether emotion regulation and moral identity integration transmitted the association between compassion-training engagement and prosocial ethical development. Results Compassion-training engagement was positively associated with emotion regulation (β = 0.41, p < 0.001), moral identity integration (β = 0.36, p < 0.001), and prosocial ethical development (β = 0.19, p < 0.001). Both indirect paths were significant: through emotion regulation [β = 0.14, 95% CI (0.09, 0.20)] and moral identity integration [β = 0.10, 95% CI (0.06, 0.16)]. Discussion The findings suggest that compassion-training engagement may support moral education by facilitating students’ shift from threat-reactive responses toward affiliative care, reflective self-regulation, and ethically consistent action.